c. 1996 Religion News Service

(Charles W. Colson, former special counsel to Richard Nixon, served a prison term for his role in the Watergate scandal. He now heads Prison Fellowship International, an evangelical Christian ministry to the imprisoned and their families. Contact Colson via e-mail at 71421,1551(at sign)compuserve.com.)

(RNS)-Americans are obsessed with health. They also seem obsessed with removing the last vestige of religion from public life.

And in these twin obsessions I see a great irony: There is an undeniable link between an active religious faith and a stable, healthy life, yet we tend to treat religion like an exotic disease. The result is not only bad for individuals, but for society as well.

Many sociological studies, including a new one by Michael Fagan of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, demonstrate just how much we are hurting ourselves by ignoring the healing power of religion.

Fagan’s study, a wide-ranging survey of social science data, confirms, among other things, that church attendance is the most important predictor of marital stability, the lack of which is wreaking both personal and public havoc. His study also supports earlier findings that religious practice helps move people out of poverty, apparently because it enforces discipline, habits of thrift and postponement of gratification.

Fagan has not stumbled across anything new. Earlier research on African-Americans who escaped the ghetto showed that religious practice played a major role in their exodus. And the link between religious practice and healthy marriages-which in turn has a marked benefit on physical and mental health-is also long established.”Marriage does not prevent economic and social problems from invading life,”sociologists L.I. Pearlin and J.S. Johnson wrote in 1977. But, they added,”marriage can function as a protective barrier against the distressful consequences of external threats.” Other studies-which were not, by the way, the product of seminarians-show that religious commitment can have beneficial effects on blood pressure, depression, anxiety, the extent of recovery from serious illnesses and operations, as well as the avoidance of alcohol, drug abuse and adolescent suicide.

Let’s be clear. Sociologists do not offer their data as proof that religious claims are true. The researchers are merely documenting the fact that those with religious commitment, for whatever reason, are healthier than those for whom religion makes little or no difference.

This should come as no surprise, even to those who reject religion. Those who believe in a personal and loving God who is in ultimate control of their destiny are obviously more given to serenity than those who believe themselves to be hurtling through a meaningless universe on a large pellet of rock and mud. Less stress, less disease.

Fagan’s study is extremely valuable, however, because it comes at a time when family disintegration is resulting in large-scale social problems, especially crime. It is no secret that a large percentage of criminals come from broken homes. Having worked with prisoners for more than 20 years, I can attest to the damage broken marriages have done to children, just as I can attest to the healing power that religion brings to even the most hardened criminals. Nonetheless we seem surprised to discover a positive correlation between religious practice and social good.

How do we put this knowledge to work? Fagan, a native of Ireland, knows there’s a fine line between religion as a leavening agent in the culture and the governmental establishment of an official religion, which our Constitution rejects. As do I.

But we have gone too far in the other direction, to the point of ostracizing religion from public life. Fagan makes an excellent point:”In an era when secular government is so pervasive that it deters public expression of religion and its moral byproducts, the federal government should give religion more public space and cite its social benefits.” America is increasingly adrift in a sea of incivility and crime. Faith offers us a life preserver. We are foolish to mistake it for an anvil.

MJP END COLSON